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Wednesday, 29 October 2014

The Green Man

There has been a longer hiatus than I would have liked from this blog. Life has been busy and complicated of late and it's left little time for the shoots I have had in mind. Things are now starting to feel a little calmer and I am hoping to have lots of delights to show you all over the coming weeks.

Autumn has firmly set in. October is my one of my favourite months of the year. I love the oranges, reds and greens and the colder air. I also love that it is the beginning of many of the colder season's folk customs; the most famous all being Halloween of course! I do love any opportunity to dress up,

so Halloween is a big hit in my house (it's really the only time of the year I can legitimately go out in my more bonkers of costumes). To celebrate it's arrival I always plan an elaborate costume. This year I am feeling rather enthralled by Green Men and Morris Men, so I set about creating an outfit which merged these. I really wanted to look like I had just danced out of a woodland. I also recently went to a study day at The Museum of Witchcraft on folklore which left me with a taste for all things spooky! What I created, with a little help from my mum, is far more terrifying than I could have ever imagined, I really didn't set out to scare (although I am of the opinion that Halloween costumes should at least be a little bit scary!)

I managed to purchase rolls and rolls of amazing coloured ribbon from a car boot at the weekend so I spent several hours sewing lines of them to a waistcoat I nicked from my brother. The mask was painted by mum on a blank she bought in Venice. We have lots more, so Mrs MacBeth's Department Store will have a few very soon. All the other components were found from charity shops and The Range's Christmas decoration department.

I was of course inspired by folk dance costumes, in particular those of Morris Dancers. I love these pictures (I didn't actually look at these until after I made the costume

I'm planning on wearing my costume out, although I will paint my face underneath so that I don't have to wear my mask all night (it gets a little hot!) I'm going to make some friends a warming feast before we dance into the night. What are your plans for Halloween? I'd love to hear what you are all dressing up as (that's if you are- I do hope you are!) I hope you all have a throughly spooky one.

12 comments:

I love this! Genuinely terrifying mask! I can't wait for Halloween and to dress up outrageously, I've got a few old costumes that need to see the light of day..Also the Witchcraft museum looks amazing, I really want to visit!X

Oh yes, definitely a scary mask - perfect halloween dress-up. There used to be a yearly Green Man day that I visited when I was younger: you'd have loved the costumes. And as a child I used to hang out of the window on warm summer evenings, watching the local Morris dancers rehearsing in the car park of the village hall, their brightly ribboned coats flying.

You and your Mum astonish me! That mask is spooky (or better ooky - scary, but in a good way), and your costume is brilliant, love the colored ribbons, the red pants, and you are right - you'd fit in perfectly with those dancers! xxxx

What an imaginative, creative and wonderful post, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh Love itThank you soooooooooooo much for joinig, you are part of the Share-in-Style family and that is WONDERFULWill you be back to vote TOMORROW?XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX